Regina (opera)
Encyclopedia
Regina is an opera by Marc Blitzstein
, to his own libretto based on the play The Little Foxes
by Lillian Hellman
. It was completed in 1948 and premiered the next year. Blitzstein chose this source in order to make a strong statement against capitalism. In three acts, the musical style has been described as new American verismo, abounding in the use of spirituals, Victorian parlour music, dance forms, ragtime, aria and large, symphonic score.
Borrowing from both opera and Broadway styles, in a manner similar to Leonard Bernstein's in Trouble in Tahiti and Virgil Thompson's in Three Saints in Four Acts, Regina has been said to straddle the line between entertainment and so-called serious music. Hellman gave Blitzstein a great deal of input into the construction of the opera, most of it vetoing any departures from her own dramatic structure. Blitzstein planned an elaborate choral prologue, but Hellman convinced him to shorten and finally jettison it entirely. Before the premiere, producer Cheryl Crawford insisted on still further cuts to the opera, asking Blitzstein to reduce the work from three acts to two. He did so, cutting fifteen minutes of music out of the party scene.
Leonard Bernstein
described Reginas relationship to The Little Foxes as "coating the wormwood with sugar, and scenting with magnolia blossoms the cursed house."
at the 46th Street Theatre in New York on October 31, 1949 conducted by Maurice Abravanel and directed by Bobby Lewis with choreography by Anna Sokolow
. Jane Pickens, formerly of the pop trio the Pickens Sisters, played Regina, and Brenda Lewis was Birdie. The first production received mixed reviews and closed on December 17, 1949.
In 1953, the City Centre Opera produced a different version of the opera with greatly expanded orchestration, giving the work a more "operatic" rather than "Broadway" sound. Bobby Lewis directed again, using the same sets. Brenda Lewis, Birdie in the 1949 cast, now took the lead as Regina. The 1953 production restored the party scene but cut other material. This production was a success, leading the company to revive the work again in 1958, with still more cuts. The 1958 version completely eliminated the onstage Dixieland
band that had been an essential part of Blitzstein's plan for the work. The 1958 version, which was Hellman's favorite although furthest from the composer's intentions, was recorded.
The first major revival of Regina since the 1958 production was in 1977, in Detroit, by the Michigan Opera Theatre (John Yaffé, conductor). It was again produced in 1980, by the Houston Grand Opera. The first British Performance was produced in Glasgow in 1991 by the Scottish Opera. New York City Opera revisited Regina in 1992 and cut music further from the 1959 version, which had come to be called definitive. The Scottish Opera production was released as a recording in 1992 by John Mauceri and the Scottish Opera Orchestra, with Katherine Ciesinski
(replacing the original Regina, Katherine Terrell) and Samuel Ramey
. This recording included nearly all the music written for the opera.
Maestro Robert L. Larsen
of the Des Moines Metro Opera
has championed the opera and produced it in both 1994 and 2008. The Florida Grand Opera
produced a new staging of the work in 2001, with Stewart Robertson
conducting. Yet another version of the opera was mounted by the Chicago Lyric Opera in 2003, with much music restored but with many scenes involving the black servants deleted, as the well-intentioned portrayals of black characters had come to seem sentimental and patronizing. This last production also added lines of dialogue from Hellman's play to clarify the story. Pacific Opera Victoria in Victoria, British Columbia and Long Leaf Opera in Chapel Hill, NC, produced the opera in 2008.
An out-of-print piano/vocal score of Regina was published by Chappell. Subsequently, scholars working with Blitzstein's collected papers at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin have reinstated music and dialogue excised earlier. Today, a restored Regina can be produced according to Blitzstein's intentions, so long overridden in earlier versions.
Regina Giddens schemes with her brothers Ben and Oscar for money and power. When her crippled husband Horace opposes her plans, Regina denies him his heart medication and he dies of a heart attack. Their daughter Alexandra, realizing the true cause of Horace's death, finds the strength to leave her mother. Having double-crossed her brothers as well, Regina is left wealthy but alone.
"Stand where the angels stand," Prologue
"Music, music, music," sung by Birdie, Act I
"The Best Thing of All," sung by Regina, Act I
"What will it be for me?" sung by Alexandra, Act I
"Regina does a lovely party," Act II
"Night Could Be Time to Sleep" (Blues), sung by Addie, Act II
"Make a quiet day/Consider the rain" (Rain Quartet), Act III
Birdie's Aria ("Lionnet"), Act III
"Greedy Girl," sung by Ben, Act III
Marc Blitzstein
Marcus Samuel Blitzstein, better known as Marc Blitzstein , was an American composer. He won national attention in 1937 when his pro-union musical The Cradle Will Rock, directed by Orson Welles, was shut down by the Works Progress Administration...
, to his own libretto based on the play The Little Foxes
The Little Foxes
The Little Foxes is a 1939 play by Lillian Hellman. Its title comes from Chapter 2, Verse 15 in the Song of Solomon in the King James version of the Bible, which reads, "Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes." Set in a small town in Alabama in...
by Lillian Hellman
Lillian Hellman
Lillian Florence "Lily" Hellman was an American playwright, linked throughout her life with many left-wing causes...
. It was completed in 1948 and premiered the next year. Blitzstein chose this source in order to make a strong statement against capitalism. In three acts, the musical style has been described as new American verismo, abounding in the use of spirituals, Victorian parlour music, dance forms, ragtime, aria and large, symphonic score.
Borrowing from both opera and Broadway styles, in a manner similar to Leonard Bernstein's in Trouble in Tahiti and Virgil Thompson's in Three Saints in Four Acts, Regina has been said to straddle the line between entertainment and so-called serious music. Hellman gave Blitzstein a great deal of input into the construction of the opera, most of it vetoing any departures from her own dramatic structure. Blitzstein planned an elaborate choral prologue, but Hellman convinced him to shorten and finally jettison it entirely. Before the premiere, producer Cheryl Crawford insisted on still further cuts to the opera, asking Blitzstein to reduce the work from three acts to two. He did so, cutting fifteen minutes of music out of the party scene.
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
described Reginas relationship to The Little Foxes as "coating the wormwood with sugar, and scenting with magnolia blossoms the cursed house."
Performance history and versions
Regina premiered on BroadwayBroadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
at the 46th Street Theatre in New York on October 31, 1949 conducted by Maurice Abravanel and directed by Bobby Lewis with choreography by Anna Sokolow
Anna Sokolow
Anna Sokolow was a Jewish American dancer and choreographer.-Training:...
. Jane Pickens, formerly of the pop trio the Pickens Sisters, played Regina, and Brenda Lewis was Birdie. The first production received mixed reviews and closed on December 17, 1949.
In 1953, the City Centre Opera produced a different version of the opera with greatly expanded orchestration, giving the work a more "operatic" rather than "Broadway" sound. Bobby Lewis directed again, using the same sets. Brenda Lewis, Birdie in the 1949 cast, now took the lead as Regina. The 1953 production restored the party scene but cut other material. This production was a success, leading the company to revive the work again in 1958, with still more cuts. The 1958 version completely eliminated the onstage Dixieland
Dixieland
Dixieland music, sometimes referred to as Hot jazz, Early Jazz or New Orleans jazz, is a style of jazz music which developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century, and was spread to Chicago and New York City by New Orleans bands in the 1910s.Well-known jazz standard songs from the...
band that had been an essential part of Blitzstein's plan for the work. The 1958 version, which was Hellman's favorite although furthest from the composer's intentions, was recorded.
The first major revival of Regina since the 1958 production was in 1977, in Detroit, by the Michigan Opera Theatre (John Yaffé, conductor). It was again produced in 1980, by the Houston Grand Opera. The first British Performance was produced in Glasgow in 1991 by the Scottish Opera. New York City Opera revisited Regina in 1992 and cut music further from the 1959 version, which had come to be called definitive. The Scottish Opera production was released as a recording in 1992 by John Mauceri and the Scottish Opera Orchestra, with Katherine Ciesinski
Katherine Ciesinski
Katherine Ciesinski is a leading American mezzo-soprano, stage director, and voice professor.Ciesinski was born to Delaware Sports Hall of Famer Roman Ciesinski and Katherine Hansen Ciesinski. She is the sister of opera singer Kristine Ciesinski...
(replacing the original Regina, Katherine Terrell) and Samuel Ramey
Samuel Ramey
Samuel Edward Ramey is an American operatic bass with a long, distinguished career.During his best years, he was greatly admired for his range and versatility, having possessed a sufficiently accomplished bel canto technique to enable him to sing the music of Handel, Mozart, Rossini, yet power...
. This recording included nearly all the music written for the opera.
Maestro Robert L. Larsen
Des Moines Metro Opera
The Des Moines Metro Opera is based in Indianola, Iowa, a town of approximately 14,000 located 12 miles south of Des Moines, Iowa. DMMO was founded by Dr. Robert L. Larsen and Douglas Duncan in 1973. A summer opera festival, the company usually performs three operas in rolling repertory during...
of the Des Moines Metro Opera
Des Moines Metro Opera
The Des Moines Metro Opera is based in Indianola, Iowa, a town of approximately 14,000 located 12 miles south of Des Moines, Iowa. DMMO was founded by Dr. Robert L. Larsen and Douglas Duncan in 1973. A summer opera festival, the company usually performs three operas in rolling repertory during...
has championed the opera and produced it in both 1994 and 2008. The Florida Grand Opera
Florida Grand Opera
Florida Grand Opera is an American opera company based in Miami, Florida. FGO was created in 1994 from the consolidation of two opera companies in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale region:...
produced a new staging of the work in 2001, with Stewart Robertson
Stewart Robertson
Stewart Robertson is a Scottish conductor. He attended the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and Bristol University...
conducting. Yet another version of the opera was mounted by the Chicago Lyric Opera in 2003, with much music restored but with many scenes involving the black servants deleted, as the well-intentioned portrayals of black characters had come to seem sentimental and patronizing. This last production also added lines of dialogue from Hellman's play to clarify the story. Pacific Opera Victoria in Victoria, British Columbia and Long Leaf Opera in Chapel Hill, NC, produced the opera in 2008.
An out-of-print piano/vocal score of Regina was published by Chappell. Subsequently, scholars working with Blitzstein's collected papers at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin have reinstated music and dialogue excised earlier. Today, a restored Regina can be produced according to Blitzstein's intentions, so long overridden in earlier versions.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast |
|---|---|---|
| Regina Giddens | mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above... |
Jane Pickens |
| Alexandra "Xan" Giddens, her daughter | soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody... |
Priscilla Gillette |
| Horace Giddens, her husband | bass | William Wilderman |
| Ben Hubbard, her elder brother | baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or... |
George Lipton |
| Oscar Hubbard, her younger brother | baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or... |
David Thomas |
| Addie, the Giddens' housekeeper | contralto Contralto Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above... |
Lillyn Brown |
| Cal, the Giddens' house man | baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or... |
William Warfield William Warfield William Caesar Warfield , was an American concert bass-baritone singer and actor.-Early life and career:Warfield was born in West Helena, Arkansas and grew up in Rochester, New York, where his father was called to serve as pastor of Mt. Vernon Church. He gave his recital debut in New York's Town... |
| "Birdie" Hubbard, Oscar's wife | soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody... |
Brenda Lewis |
| Leo Hubbard, Oscar's son | tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2... |
Russell Nype Russell Nype Russell Nype is an American actor and singer.Born in Zion, Illinois, Nype made his Broadway debut in Marc Blitzstein's opera Regina in 1949. The following year he won critical acclaim and both the Tony and Theatre World Awards for his performance opposite Ethel Merman in Call Me Madam... |
| William Marshall, a businessman from the North | tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2... |
Donald Clarke |
| Jazz, trumpeter in the Angel Band | baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or... |
William Dillard |
| Belle | silent role | Clarise Crawford |
Synopsis
Setting: the Deep South in the year 1900Regina Giddens schemes with her brothers Ben and Oscar for money and power. When her crippled husband Horace opposes her plans, Regina denies him his heart medication and he dies of a heart attack. Their daughter Alexandra, realizing the true cause of Horace's death, finds the strength to leave her mother. Having double-crossed her brothers as well, Regina is left wealthy but alone.
Musical numbers
Musical highlights include the following:"Stand where the angels stand," Prologue
"Music, music, music," sung by Birdie, Act I
"The Best Thing of All," sung by Regina, Act I
"What will it be for me?" sung by Alexandra, Act I
"Regina does a lovely party," Act II
"Night Could Be Time to Sleep" (Blues), sung by Addie, Act II
"Make a quiet day/Consider the rain" (Rain Quartet), Act III
Birdie's Aria ("Lionnet"), Act III
"Greedy Girl," sung by Ben, Act III